The natural sights in China will probably surprise many people. From red rock deserts and snow-capped mountains, to crystal clear lakes and the rocky towers that inspired the Avatar movie – China has it all, and today we’re exploring the blue lakes of Jiuzhaigou National Park. The park suffered from overtourism in previous years, with…
Category: Asia
Visiting A Traditional Miao Village | Guizhou, China
Langde is a Miao village nestled into the side of a lush valley in Guizhou. The locals are part of the ‘Long Skirt Miao’ ethnic group and every day they perform a welcoming ceremony for the visitors. While some villages have become overrun with tourism, Langde has managed to avoid the big tour groups –…
Slow Trains and Traditional Markets in Guizhou, China
China’s rail network has grown rapidly, and it now has the world’s most extensive high-speed railway network, boasting 50,000km of tracks. While many people still think Japan has the fastest trains – it’s actually China that holds the record. Major train stations across the country are built to handle 16,000 people per hour, where they’re…
A Miao Village Nestled In A Dramatic Gorge
The little, wooden village of Dehang sits in a dramatic gorge, and it’s home to the Miao ethnic minority group. The area offers some fabulous hiking routes, so it was an easy add-on to our itinerary. Our hotel in the nearby town gave us a complimentary shuttle service to the scenic area, and it turned…
The Cliff Dwellings Of Wangxian | China
Wangxian Valley in eastern China has a history dating back to 25–220 CE, but since 1998 it has been heavily damaged by granite mining. In 2017, the government decided to step in and invested over 300 million dollars to redevelop the area into a tourism destination to resemble ancient cliff-side dwellings. We don’t normally like…
Admiring The Granite Spires At Sanqinshan | China
We keep returning to China because we love the dramatic landscapes and the fascinating culture. After starting our trip in a city, we couldn’t wait to escape the chaos and head to a scenic area – and the one we picked was Sanqinshan. It’s a mountainous area filled with spiky granite peaks where hiking paths…
Witnessing China’s Matcha Lake
Hangzhou was never on my list of places to visit on this trip – we actually explored the city and its famous West Lake over ten years ago. The reason we returned was to explore another lake, 50km west of the city. It’s become famous for a wetland area where trees rise from the water…
Returning To China And Exploring Nanjing
It’s our fourth time visiting China – the country is massive so there’s always new areas to explore and old favourites to return to. This time we’re starting in Nanjing, in eastern China, and we’ll be making our way overland to the Tibetan plateau, and onwards to Mongolia. Annoyingly, it was £70 cheaper to fly…
Our 19 hour border crossing from China to Kyrgyzstan via the Torugart Pass
We’d heard horror stories about the border crossing from Pakistan to China and how many checks there were and hours it took but in the end we didn’t find it too bad and it only took about 7 hours. Today though we were travelling from China to Kyrgyzstan via the Torugart crossing. I couldn’t find…
Exploring the Silk Road city of Kashgar | China no
Kashgar has been an important stop along the Silk Road for the past 2000 years. It sits in the far western corner of China in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. The old city has mostly been demolished and rebuilt, many people don’t like it because it now has a Disney-style feel to it and…
NON STOP TRAVELLING 